


Everything

by fade_like_starlight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/M, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-28 23:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11428950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fade_like_starlight/pseuds/fade_like_starlight
Summary: 'I must look awful.''No. Never. You look like a hero.'Michael returns from the dungeons and Lavender can't stay away.





	Everything

**Author's Note:**

> originally written in 2007 for the LJ community '7spells', prompt: if you wanted honesty.

Lavender Brown used to let Michael Corner upset her on purpose so she could swing her hips and toss her ponytail as she flounced away from him. She used to ask him ridiculously complicated questions about classes he wasn't even taking, just so she could shrug and say 'I guess Ravenclaws aren't as smart as they think they are.'

Lavender used to love playing these games with Michael. It kept her mind off The War and gave her something to focus her nervous energy on. It didn't hurt that he was tall, dark and handsome, either, she confided to Parvati, all the standard romantic cliches.

Now, Michael was gone - missing for two days after rescuing Gryffindor first year Melina King from the dungeon, where she was, by all accounts, chained to the wall for the crime of talking in class. The Gryffindor seventh years had been incensed, but while they hatched a rescue plan, Michael had strode in, the brave knight minus the sword and white horse and rescued the princess. Standard fairy tale, until the knight found himself captured and at the mercy of the villain.

Lavender was no fairy tale princess, but her knight was missing, and all she could do was sit in her tower and wait.

The message had come through late at night, when she was laying in bed, clutching her coin and worrying. The coin warmed suddenly, and Lavender illuminated her wand, ignoring Parvati's sleepy indignation.

'Back in dorm,' the message said. 'Miss you. MC.'

 _Miss you_. Lavender had spent nearly all day dwelling on it, and now, she was determined to get answers.

'Padma, if you don't let me in, I swear, I will break in. I will Stun you. I don't care what I do, and I don't care what you tell yourself to make yourself feel better, but you will let me in.'

Padma watched her with lovely eyes - Parvati's eyes - that mirrored the pain in Lavender's. When had they all become so hurt?

'Okay,' Padma said, 'but you have to keep him quiet, Lavender, it's - he's really bad. Don't excite him, and don't let him out of bed.'

Padma turned to the Ravenclaw entrance, which asked 'what is love?'

'Everything,' Lavender cut in, and the door murmured approval and opened. 'That's it?' Lavender asked. 'It's just a question?'

Padma smiled, forced and mirthless. 'He's up there,' she pointed. 'First door.'

The door was ajar, and Lavender slipped in, closing it behind her, fully aware of just how many rules she was breaking, and how much she did not care. Michael was asleep, arm bandaged, bruised face, and scrapes over his bare chest. Lavender pulled a chair to the head of his bed and sat, stroked the small area of undamaged skin on the back of his hand.

Tears fell, and she didn't attempt to stop them, just rested her forehead on the edge of his mattress, waiting and worrying.

'Hey,' Michael whispered hoarsely. 'What're you doing here?'

She lifted her head, quickly swiping away the tear tracks. 'Waiting for you,' she said. 'I need help with Transfiguration, it was very selfish of you to nick off and leave me hanging.' As she spoke, she gently squeezed his hand, and smoothed his hair back from his eyes with her other hand.

'I must look awful,' he said, stretching and wincing.

'No. Never. You look like a hero.'

He gave her a faint smile, but Lavender could see what the effort cost him.

'Don't say anything,' she said. 'Just sleep, okay? I need you. I need you to be okay.'

'I am not -' he took a deep, rattling breath, and Lavender was on the verge of running for Padma when he calmed and continued. 'Doing your homework for you.'

Lavender bit her lip and threw her head back, staring at the ceiling and willing the tears to go away. 'No,' she said, looking back down at him. 'I have never been so scared. All I could do was promise to be honest when I got you back, because if I thought I wouldn't get you back, I... Michael, never, ever do that again. God, Michael. I mean, this year has just been so - and we're always fighting, but it's fun, and I wanted you. Then Terry said you were missing, and Neville found Melina, and she's okay, Michael, because you saved her. She said you were so brave, and they took you, and we didn't know and then you said you missed me and Michael, promise you'll _never_ do that again, because I need you and I can't lose you.'

He watched her for a minute, his dark eyes calm and full of promise. 'I love you, Lavender,' he pulled her hand to his heart and covered it with his own, 'but I can't promise that.'

'I know,' she said. 'Me neither.' She pressed a kiss to his lips, soft and quick, then sat back.

'No,' he said quickly. 'Stay with me, please.'

Lavender shook her head and her ponytail bounced. 'I'm not going anywhere,' she said.

**Author's Note:**

> regarding the DA coins: it's my headcanon from other fics that the Ravenclaws modified the coins to send texts, essentially.


End file.
